The present invention is directed to a vise for holding objects. It is particularly useful for holding small objects such as fishhooks or other similar objects upon which various materials are tied or fastened to make artificial flies and fishing lures.
Fishermen have long used artificial flies as fishing lures in fly casting. Such artificial flies are typically made by hand tying hairs, feathers, and other materials to a fishhook to simulate a real insect. In order to free up both hands for holding and tying the hair and feathers, fishing enthusiasts often employ a clamp or vise to hold the fishhook in the desired position. There are many different designs of fly tying vises available. In general, the vises employ adjustable hook-holding jaws that are loosened or tightened by means of thumb screws or nuts. In some cases, the jaws may be rotatable to allow the enthusiast to see or work on other areas of the artificial fly.
One difficulty with fly tying devices is designing a jaw arrangement that is easily adjustable so that it can fixedly hold fishhooks of varying sizes. Many prior art devices employ thumb screws or levers to open and close the jaws. While such adjustment mechanisms work fairly well, they can be cumbersome to use. It can also be somewhat difficult with these mechanisms to determine the right amount of jaw tension needed to securely hold the fishhook without crushing or damaging the hook.
Another difficulty in designing fly tying vises is ensuring that the jaws always remain parallel to each other with no misalignment to enable a wide range of fishhook sizes to be held securely there between with no slippage and without crushing the smallest fishhooks.
A further difficulty with fly tying devices is designing a jaw arrangement that can accommodate a full range of fishhook sizes, i.e. from #10/0 down to #32. Prior art vises typically accommodate only a partial range of fishhook sizes, or require that different jaws of different sizes or shapes be interchanged to accommodate a wide range of hook sizes.
Often fly tying vises are primarily designed for either stationary tying or rotary tying, but not both, requiring a fishing enthusiast to purchase two vises--one for standard stationary tying and one for rotary tying--in order to employ the full range of fly tying techniques.
Another difficulty with many prior art vises is that the table clamp portions of the vises have limited openings and can therefore only accommodate a narrow range of tabletop thicknesses. Vises that can accommodate a wide range of tabletop thicknesses often employ a relatively long adjusting shaft that can become easily bent or damaged.
The present inventor has designed a fly tying device that is intended to address these and other difficulties with prior art fly tying devices.